His Nightmare Queen (Pitch Black x Reader)

26: Possibilities

Two mugs filled with steaming hot tea that was still settling into the boiling water were set down on the table in front of you. You watched the honey color from the bag of herbs seep into the water as the steam rose in front of your face to ghost into the air of the room toward the many towering shelves of books stacked along the stone walls. You sat cross-legged at the coffee table as Pitch started to sit down across from you where he had placed his mug.

“Immortality is not just some token in exchange for escaping a typical life,” he spoke while joining you at the small table. “It has its benefits as much as its…drawbacks.”

“Such as?” You raised a brow.

“To be explained in further detail.”

The library of the lair happened to make a suitable location to discuss such a topic. After having turned in for the night when you came back to the lair instead of leaving Pitch’s kingdom on the night of Christmas, it was a good idea to go over the details of your decision further over tea in the morning. Being that you were agreeing to living in the world of immortal beings forever rather than living a simple life for another sixty years, you had to receive the full rundown. While Pitch spoke, you would glance around at the surrounding bookshelves lining the walls. The aged appearance of the cracked necks and yellowed pages of most of the hundreds of books from centuries ago weighed into your vision. Years of layers of dust coated the colored covers and blurred titles, but the history and words written inside were just as they had been when they were first put on paper. Unlike the novels you could see with torn pages and stained hardcovers, you thought of yourself as signing up for the opposite - a story to add infinite chapters to that would age with time, but the cover would remain shiny as new.

“That sure does help me decide what I want for myself,” you remarked sarcastically. 

“I need to know you’re entirely on board with this,” Pitch remained stern, keeping your attention on him in front of you. “Because once it’s done, it’s done. It’s not reversible, at least to my knowledge. And I’ve been around an awfully long time.”

“Are you gonna tell me how it works, or are you gonna keep scaring me out of this idea?”

After finding out who you were not the night before, you had kindly returned the short jacket that he had gifted to you. You still held on to your memory box to soon return to Jack, but you noted to Pitch that it felt wrong for you to keep what belonged to who your memories said was not you. At this, he mentioned that he would find you one that you could call your own. You were about to say the same about your sword that he had allowed you to carry around on your hip at all times, but he insisted without hesitation that you hang on to that one. Sadly, it would not exactly pair well with your other outfits such as your getup this morning of a black tank top and pajama sweats as it did with the stylish skirted trench jacket. Obviously, this was not a crucial issue, but even Pitch wandered around in ancient materials that probably have not yet been found by the humans of Earth. Perhaps living forever was going to come with a wardrobe makeover.

“There are very few ways in which a human can become immortal. One is significantly easier than the other,” the Nightmare King began again. “The more difficult way would be for Man in Moon himself to bestow it upon you.” He sat up straighter, folding his hands in front of him by the mug of tea. “Now, nothing against you, but I don’t exactly see that happening soon considering you siding with me.”

“And the other way?” You turned your head slightly. Then you watched him glance off into the corner of his sight.

“Is for those who have the spare fifteen minutes of their time,” he muttered.

“What?”

“You find an immortal. Be it a spirit or not.” He gestured toward himself. “Which you’ve already done, so congratulations, you’re already one step ahead.”